Agadir to Essaouira Day Trip: UNESCO Medina, Fishing Port & Souk

The St Malo of Morocco... Walled city designed by the same architect as St Malo. The incredible fishing port and its smell, the ramparts, put you in the mood right away. In the maze of alleys await you many shops. Day tour far too short ... Long hours by bus from Agadir, but crossing the Atlas offers great views.

Abdoul our tour guide gave us a bomb tour, well organized, very informative and you got shown corners of the city that you probably wouldn't find yourself without tour guide. The ride was a bit long but with several stops even quite pleasant.Can only recommend the tour!

Good but too long trip with unnecessary stops. Essaouira offers a homogeneous architecture but the city is nothing more than a long series of shops

Our guide was waiting for us in the lobby (our fifth trip and the first company to be early), we were the first on the mini bus so grabbed forward seats near a window (we were at the back on a previous trip and the aircon was nonexistent), collected folk from a second hotel and we were off, our guide switched between English and French and was the most informative of the guides we have had, pointing out landmarks and recounting the history of various places. We stopped at a service station with a cafe for a break, clean toilets (don’t forget your toilet paper), then we spotted goats in argan trees and pulled over for photographs, and then about 20k out we stopped at an Argan cooperative, we had visited one previously, you are shown the process of nut extraction by local ladies, explained by the in-house guide, offered a taste of Argan oil and honey with some bread, then invited to browse their products, no hard sell. Then off to Essaouira. We pulled up near the square and were told we would be collected here. Our guide asked if anyone would like to go off and do their own thing (you miss out on the knowledge of the guide but have the autonomy to do your own thing in your own time), then led us round the medina and souk, stopping at a shop making wooden items (tours have set places where they will go, a quid pro quo thing, no hard sell). We were given set freer time to wander round the battlements, but felt we were pulled up for being late when we weren’t. Then to the terrace restaurant, we were given the choice of eating elsewhere at the start of the tour, but once outside were herded upstairs to a shared table, so the horse bolted rather quickly and the prices were high here, but without the Michelin quality - my wife had seafood noodles which were black with the amount of soy sauce in it! I would avoid this restaurant and go elsewhere to eat, as it’s the usual quid pro quo between the tour company and restaurant - the fish market looked amazing for eating! Our guide then took my wife and me back to the square as everyone else stayed on for dessert, we had an hour and a bit of free time till departure, so went back into the souk for a wander - it was if he didn’t trust us in the souk - then down to the port - i recommend this as all the fishermen were selling their wares here, very pungent smells and quite a steampunk image! Plus walking back you get the best view of Essaouira - see the photo of my wife by the blue boat. We met up promptly at 16:30, but again felt accused of being mate when we were bang on time to the minute, not our fault others weren’t interested in exploring as much as possible. We had a stop at the service station on the way back for a toilet break, getting back to our hotel just before 20:30. The tour itself was a lot better than our tour of marrekech in that our guide wasn’t rushing, but there’s so much more to see at Marrakech, just make sure you get free time if going to Marrakech. All in all a professional tour, skip the terrace restaurant,, take a spare top as it’s a windy town, see the port, and make sure you meet up early, as being on time is considered late!

We had a very good day with omar, he was very informative and responsive most of all very good driver, the highlight of the tour was the goats on tries and the old harbor of essaouira.

Myself, my wife and three kids stayed in Taghazout, near Agadir, in August and we decided to book a day trip to Essaouira to give ourselves something different to do after a few days lounging around by the hotel pool. We stumbled across OkeyTours and decided to sound them out about the trip. We sent a whatsapp message through and they were ultra responsive, giving us a price and a detailed explanation of the trip without any hard-sell or pressure. It was a very competitive quote - far cheaper than what you'd get with Tui etc - so we booked. Our guide Zakaria came to pick us up the next day from our hotel - band on time. And on the relaxed two hour journey to Essaouira he told us lots of interesting facts about Morocco and about villages we encountered en route. We had a couple of stop-offs - one to explore desert landscape not too far from Agadir and a second to visit an Argan oil women's collective, where we could see how the oil is produced and buy products from a delightful little shop. Plenty of time to take pics and nothing felt rushed. When we arrived in Essaouira itself, Zakaria gave us a guided tour of the old part of the town, but he didn't overwhelm us and gave us whatever time we needed to 'do our own thing' - but food, look in shops, etc. He took us to the local fish marlet which was fascinating and full of colour (as well as smells!). Then we explored the narrow lanes filled with stalls and shops before taking a look at a very old and beautiful riad hotel. One of the highlights of the six hour trip came on the way home when we turned a corner to see an Argan tree with loads of goats climbing its branches - something we'd hoped to see, but didn't really expect to witness. Zakaria (who speaks excellent English by the way) was only too happy to pull his people carrier over and let us take pics. All in all it was a wonderful trip - one that we'll never forget. Thank you Zakaria and OkeyTours!

First of all, I would like to mention that the trip was all in all ok. The pick-up time was given for 7.30 am. Unfortunately we were only picked up at 7.55 am.... why is such an early time of day so late? It could not be due to traffic... good that I had a mobile phone contact and could contact via whatsapp. Five minutes later, I was contacted by phone by the provider who called the driver. Until then, everything's fine. As planned, we also stopped by a herd of goats and took photos of the goats on the argan trees. Continuing the wild drive to the coffee break at a gas station, which is apparently served by really all tourist buses. The employees already knew their stuff, spoke English, German, French etc. Offer was abundant, toilet available. From there we drove to the women's cooperative's argan oil factory. Don't promise yourself too much. It is briefly shown, explained and then taken to the salesroom. Our guide Abdullah and our driver Gammal were friendly and safe. Shortcoming of the ride: It lasted almost 4 hours. We were 19 people in a minibus and the air was not particularly pleasant. We were happy when we finally arrived. Once in Essaouira, Abdullah showed us the medina, led us through the Jewish Quarter, the Kasbah and a few interesting streets. On request, we could have walked through the city completely alone. But our guide didn't react particularly pleased that we wanted to explore the city "on our own". Since guide information can also be helpful, we went with the group. Our guide spoke Arabic, French, English, Italian and German. You could understand him very well and he did everything in all the languages of the participants. At lunchtime, our guide led us purposefully to a restaurant. Since we weren’t hungry and now wanted to see the city again on our own paths, we asked for the final meeting place and left. We learned from other participants that the food must have been really good. But for small money and at your own expense. The town is small and snazzy, the port must be seen. The beach is also beautiful.:) We were in the city for a total of 3.5 hours. Actually, we had booked the trip because of the promised 4 hours of free time and paid a high surcharge in comparison. We could have got the ride from the hotel's own provider for 11€ cheaper p.P. Unfortunately, we were disappointed in this regard. Even after we learned that other participants had only paid half of our price, the mood was no better. Please make sure that you do not pay more than 40€ per person for a day trip from Agadir to Essaouira. On the way back we stopped at the same gas station for a coffee break. Then made another photo stop at Banana Beach and then drove back to Agadir. We were back at the hotel around 7.15pm. All in all, okay. But unfortunately not anymore. The city is beautiful, but the trip was not worth the money we paid. That's why I'm subtracting two stars.

We took the day trip to essaouria which was a long drive , however with nice scenery. Essouira is beautiful. Tour guide was nice and informative. We then took the half day agadir city tour the next day which was great also . Would recommend